United Nations Development Programme in the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia

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he Restoration of the Mavrovica Dam is part of a wider project being supported by the EU Flood Recovery Programme, which aims to assist the country’s recovery efforts in the aftermath of the floods that occurred in early 2015 by reconstructing damaged water and flood control infrastructure. The interventions focus on improving the discharge capacities of regulated river sections and drainage networks in the Crna Reka and Strumica River Basins, as well as the reconstruction and better management of four dams that were damaged by the floods.

Getting more people to use public transport is key to tackling the major problem of pollution in the country’s capital city of Skopje. To encourage more commuters to switch from cars to buses, UNDP partnered with the Fund for Innovation and Technological Development and the city’s main bus company, JSP, to launch a competition to find intelligent solutions to improve the bus system, including a bus ‘hackathon’ and ‘smart bus stop’ design.

Social Services for Persons with Disabilities aims to support the training of people with disabilities in the skills they need to enter the labour market and lead fuller and more independent lives. The project will include a training programme for work-oriented rehabilitation that aims to enable twenty people from the Banja Bansko Institution to find jobs in a labour market that has traditionally excluded people with disabilities.

We appeal to each and every person, and especially to our male friends and colleagues: if you know that violence is happening – and someone almost always does – then don’t stand aside. Take action. Do something. Say something. Break the silence.

At the UN, we are delighted to see the specific focus in the Declaration – and in so many other events organized during this year’s “16 Days” – on securing ratification of the Istanbul Convention in 2017. The Istanbul Convention is the world’s best legal framework for fighting violence against women, building on the already sound foundations of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

The technical documentation that we are handing over today to the municipalities is part of a broader UNDP commitment to support the economic development of rural communities. • We have worked closely with the four municipalities to focus on key strategic investments –new roads to local natural attractions in Chashka, Debrca and Lipkovo, for example; or 35 kilometers of new hiking trails in Bogovinje – that will help to unlock the abundant potential for tourism that we see in the beautiful natural settings that each community enjoys.

This means that SDGs are not some alien agenda imported from outside, but rather a global commitment that enjoys the legitimacy of endorsement by every single country in the world.This commitment obliges all of us – every person in this room, and indeed every person on the planet – to embark on what’s been called a “great collective journey.”

After three decades of neglect, however, help is finally at hand in the shape of a major EU-funded project being implemented by UNDP. The first stage of the project, a massive clean-up operation of the riverbed of the Crna Reka, has already begun, with overgrown vegetation being cleared along a 37-km section of the river. The 800,000-euro project will include interventions in the main river channel and tributaries that run through several municipalities in the region of Pelagonija, in line with the priorities earlier identified by a UNDP-supported feasibility study for the river.

UN Day this year was all about raising public awareness of the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development agreed on by world leaders in 2015—a set of goals that aim to bring an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030. To celebrate UN Day and bring the Global Goals to public attention, four innovative local designers joined up with the UN to create T-shirts illustrating their vision of ‘2030 Now’.